Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 1945 - 3.6 Media Types

Top: Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
Up: Requests For Comments
Up: RFC 1945
Up: 3. Protocol Parameters
Prev: 3.5 Content Codings
Next: 3.6.1 Canonicalization and Text Defaults

### 3.6 Media Types

HTTP uses Internet Media Types [13] in the Content-Type header field (Section 10.5) in order to provide open and extensible data typing.

           media-type     = type "/" subtype *( ";" parameter )
           type           = token
           subtype        = token

Parameters may follow the type/subtype in the form of attribute/value pairs.

           parameter      = attribute "=" value
           attribute      = token
           value          = token | quoted-string

The type, subtype, and parameter attribute names are case- insensitive. Parameter values may or may not be case-sensitive, depending on the semantics of the parameter name. LWS must not be generated between the type and subtype, nor between an attribute and its value. Upon receipt of a media type with an unrecognized parameter, a user agent should treat the media type as if the unrecognized parameter and its value were not present.

Some older HTTP applications do not recognize media type parameters. HTTP/1.0 applications should only use media type parameters when they are necessary to define the content of a message.

Media-type values are registered with the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA [15]). The media type registration process is outlined in RFC 1590 [13]. Use of non-registered media types is discouraged.

3.6.1 Canonicalization and Text Defaults
3.6.2 Multipart Types

Next: 3.6.1 Canonicalization and Text Defaults

Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 1945 - 3.6 Media Types